The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan

 The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan

2009, William Morrow

Series: Book 1 of The Strain

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Synopsis: A Boeing 777 arrives at JFK and is on its way across the tarmac, when it suddenly stops dead. All window shades are pulled down. All lights are out. All communication channels have gone quiet. Crews on the ground are lost for answers, but an alert goes out to the CDC. Dr. Ephraim "Eph" Goodweather, head of their Canary project, a rapid-response team that investigates biological threats, gets the call and boards the plane. What he finds makes his blood run cold.

In a pawnshop in Spanish Harlem, a former professor and survivor of the Holocaust named Abraham Setrakian knows something is happening. And he knows the time has come, that a war is brewing.

So begins a battle of mammoth proportions as the vampiric virus that has infected New York begins to spill out into the streets. Eph, who is joined by Setrakian and a motley crew of fighters, must now find a way to stop the contagion and save his city - a city that includes his wife and son - before it is too late.

The Good: I love the TV series and, as it turns out, it rarely deviates from the book. Minor details are changed, but overall, it's the same exact story. If you love the show, you'll love the book. If you haven't seen the show, you need to read this first - I wish I had. This horrific vampire reimagining is everything new and different the subgenre needs to evolve. Looking at vampires as disease vectors, along with changing up a good portion of the vampire biology and lore makes this book especially interesting. For some unknown reason, I had imagined this book was going to be dry and postponed reading it for year while it sat on my shelf. It was nothing of the sort. It was fast paced (extremely in my case having seen the show) and very engaging. Even knowing what would happen, I had trouble putting it down.

The Bad: Not a thing.